Frontispiece and emblem · Lexicon

From the book

Aphorismi Urbigerani

Baro Urbigerus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordA figure is here an explanatory image; an emblem joins pictured subjects, attributes and words. The frontispiece is the historical plate, not an illustration invented by the modern edition.
In the bookThe author calls the image a compendium of philosophical emblems and says it represents all his subjects and operations. His closing explanation guides the reader back to the opening plate.
In this editionThe edition separates the historical inscriptions and explanation from its own interpretive essays. It translates the signature without expanding initials into a full engraved name.
A place to readBoth postscript paragraphs (1690, pp. 84–86), read with the plate and its complete inscription list.

Meaning

Figure and emblem name a mode of teaching that condenses relations into a visible arrangement. The historical frontispiece contains a tree, Serpent and Dragon, Apollo and Diana, a river, a combined figure and Latin banners. Its lettering is part of the image’s argument. The author’s own postscript states what the image is meant to do: help those who are not disciples understand difficult philosophical figures and, through that understanding, the aphorisms themselves.

The image is therefore neither detached decoration nor a transparent code whose every meaning can be supplied from one word list. The author expressly calls it capable of “many and various Interpretations,” because it mystically represents all his subjects and operations. The supplied explanation nevertheless gives definite correspondences against which a reading can be checked.

Use in the book

The first postscript paragraph explains why an account was added. Urbigerus initially considered further illustration unnecessary: setting down every interpretation would repeat the aphorisms and make them useless. He then says that public benefit led him to provide a brief explanation after all. The relation is reciprocal. The image gathers what the aphorisms unfold, while the explanation sends the reader between them rather than replacing one with the other.

The second paragraph begins with the tree’s motto, read from the side of the Serpent. It distinguishes the Serpent’s need for assistance from the Dragon’s capacity to complete the first way without another created or artificially prepared thing. Their coupling then represents the second way and a change from the Dragon’s undetermined being. Apollo and Diana show the third way and the continuation of the first two. The plate thus holds alternative beginnings and shared later stages in a single space. Reading every figure as simply the next item in one unbranched chronology would lose that arrangement.

The river and the approach to firm ground make a more explicit sequence within the image. Descent signifies a required state before rebirth; emergence in one body marks completed Herculean works and the beginning of conjunction; the movement to sow on firm ground signifies the continuation of conjunction towards perfection. The historical explanation is exact enough to distinguish these states, while leaving other aspects, such as what Diana has obtained in “all,” unitemised.

Finally, the author says that principal points of Old and New Testament faith are also mystically exhibited. The word also is important to the scope of the claim: this paragraph has just explained subjects, ways and operations, and now gives the same scheme a religious reach. Its ultimate end is blessed immortality. A reading confined to laboratory description would omit this explicit conclusion; a reading that declared all material claims merely figurative would omit what precedes it. Later reflective applications can be offered as interpretations, but not silently inserted into the author’s explanation.

Places to read

The Frontispiece InscriptionsLatinThe plate inscriptions include local mottos and a distinct maker’s signature.
Postscript · HeadingOriginalThe historical heading identifies the postscript as an explanation of the prefixed figure.
Postscript · Passage 1OriginalThe author states the pedagogical purpose, compendious claim and plurality of interpretations.
Postscript · Passage 2OriginalParticular figures are assigned to routes and stages; the conclusion adds biblical faith and immortality.
Postscript · FinisLatinThe final closing word follows the explanation, not merely the lesser aphorisms.

In this edition

The reading translates the Latin mottos separately rather than combining them into continuous speech. Notes 1–3 record plural pronouns, the reading vinciam and the abbreviated signature. “WF fe:” is translated “W. F. made this”; the attribution to William Faithorne belongs to editorial catalogue information, not to an expanded historical signature. Notes 111–114 likewise distinguish the author’s many interpretations and religious claim from additional editorial readings. No earlier Latin original of the English aphorisms is implied by the presence of Latin on the plate.

Historical forms and local uses:

Figure [English printed form] — The engraving placed before the aphorisms and explained in the postscript. (Postscript · Passage 1)

Philosophical Emblems [printed English phrase] — The symbolic figures of which the author calls his plate a compendium. (Postscript · Passage 1)

many and various Interpretations [printed English phrase] — The plurality the author expressly allows to a figure representing his subjects and operations. (Postscript · Passage 1)

WF fe: [Latin abbreviated signature as printed] — W. F. made this; a maker’s signature, not one of the figures’ speeches. (The Frontispiece Inscriptions)